How effective are M.P.'s at scrutinising the Government?

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Orlá Vallely 13H

POLITICS ESSAY

        How effective are M.P.‘s at scrutinising the Government?

        The issue of whether or not M.P.‘s are effective at scrutinising the Government is extremely controversial. Many would argue that that they are effective due to the six scrutinising mechanisms, debates, question time, and the opposition, standing committees, Select Committees and the liaison committee.  However some critics would contend that M.P.‘s are not as effective at scrutinising the Government as the majority of M.P.‘s belong to the governing party.  Thereby undermining their effectiveness at scrutinisers as they have a conflict of interest, as party loyalty is so strong.  Executive dominance inhibits M.P.‘s from effectively scrutinising the Government.

        Debates are one mechanism that M.P.‘s use in order to scrutinise the Government.  Debates are en effective means of scrutinising the Government as they force the Government to explain and justify its actions.  They also allow parliament to express dissenting views and to challenge the Government.  An example of a debate that thoroughly scrutinised the Government was in September 2002, over the war in Iraq, where M.P.‘s got the chance to fully empress their views.  Thus effectively scrutinising the Government.  

        However parliament is not always effective at scrutinising the Government through debates as they rarely have an impact on Government, unless Government has a small party majority.  Voting on debates usually ends in a predictable outcome, as whips force M.P.‘s to vote according to Government.  This shows that M.P.‘s are not always effective at their job of scrutinising the Government.  

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        Another way in which M.P.‘s scrutinise the Government is through Question Time.  Each Wednesday the Prime Minister is questioned for an hour by Parliament.  This effectively checks up on the government, as the supplementary questions that M.P.‘s ask the Prime Minister are unexpected.  Therefore the Prime Minister is caught off guard without any planned answer.  As a result the Prime Minister is forced to explain and justify his policies.  

        In spite of this the Prime Minister and his ministers don’t have to answer any of the questions put forward by the opposition and other M.P.‘s.  Also question time has ...

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